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Chem and bio EMPA (old a levels)

Hey everyone, just a very quick question but how much notice were you given about WHEN you were going to sit your EMPA?

Not the content of it; I mean the actual date of the exam itself.

I'm asking because my college has literally sent me an email telling me I'm sitting my bio and Chem EMPA's in 2 weeks.

No warning of this beforehand at all. It's just kinda "Surprise, here's your 4 EMPA exams in 2 weeks"

The problem being that 2 weeks from now is our half term break and I've booked to go away for 3 weeks. On top of that we still haven't finished the syllabus and I've still not had any practical experience what so ever. (In a private wee college doing a level Chem and bio as a crash course in 6 months as a mature student, so sitting all 4 EMPAs over 4 days)

So no idea what the hell is going on. This is a total nightmare.

Anyway is this amount of short notice as to date of an exam standard to all places or is it pretty unique to my college?
Reply 1
If anyone could help with just how long before their EMPA they knew the date of their EMPA it would've most appreciated as I have a meeting with my college about this tomorrow.
Original post by Torel
Hey everyone, just a very quick question but how much notice were you given about WHEN you were going to sit your EMPA?

Not the content of it; I mean the actual date of the exam itself.

I'm asking because my college has literally sent me an email telling me I'm sitting my bio and Chem EMPA's in 2 weeks.

No warning of this beforehand at all. It's just kinda "Surprise, here's your 4 EMPA exams in 2 weeks"

The problem being that 2 weeks from now is our half term break and I've booked to go away for 3 weeks. On top of that we still haven't finished the syllabus and I've still not had any practical experience what so ever. (In a private wee college doing a level Chem and bio as a crash course in 6 months as a mature student, so sitting all 4 EMPAs over 4 days)

So no idea what the hell is going on. This is a total nightmare.

Anyway is this amount of short notice as to date of an exam standard to all places or is it pretty unique to my college?


Hi, yeah its seems that they have kind of sprung it up on your which is quite unfair. Although my college haven't given me my dates yet, we have been doing prep towards the empas for some while. Although I should stress, I'm assuming your 4 empa 'exams' are just the practical tasks. They're not too challenging and do not require 'revision', although doing the odd practical in college helps. We normally do 2 of the tasks on the same day, so don't worry too much. 2 weeks is plenty of time to ask your teachers for help. It doesn't matter if you haven't completed the syllabus, most colleges haven't :smile:
Reply 3
Original post by Ninjakam119
Hi, yeah its seems that they have kind of sprung it up on your which is quite unfair. Although my college haven't given me my dates yet, we have been doing prep towards the empas for some while. Although I should stress, I'm assuming your 4 empa 'exams' are just the practical tasks. They're not too challenging and do not require 'revision', although doing the odd practical in college helps. We normally do 2 of the tasks on the same day, so don't worry too much. 2 weeks is plenty of time to ask your teachers for help. It doesn't matter if you haven't completed the syllabus, most colleges haven't :smile:


I'm not sure if it is just the practicals. I think it's the written paper as well. As each exam is about 2.5 hours each scheduled on my timetable; so I'm assuming they want me to do the practical and then immediately do the written paper on it afterwards.

Thanks for answering though; really appreciated.
Original post by Torel
I'm not sure if it is just the practicals. I think it's the written paper as well. As each exam is about 2.5 hours each scheduled on my timetable; so I'm assuming they want me to do the practical and then immediately do the written paper on it afterwards.

Thanks for answering though; really appreciated.


I highly doubt it will be the written paper, as the first possible date you can sit the paper is on the 1st of May (which is a Sunday) have a look at the document on this link:
http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/science/as-and-a-level/biology-2410/updates/isa-and-empa-timelines-for-20152016
Reply 5
Original post by Ninjakam119
I highly doubt it will be the written paper, as the first possible date you can sit the paper is on the 1st of May (which is a Sunday) have a look at the document on this link:
http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/science/as-and-a-level/biology-2410/updates/isa-and-empa-timelines-for-20152016


I think you're right but I don't understand why each of my tests are 2.5 hours long, just seems odd.
Original post by Torel
I think you're right but I don't understand why each of my tests are 2.5 hours long, just seems odd.

Don't worry about the time duration, on the sheet my college gave me, it said my empa was 900 hours haha, there isn't really a time limit to tasks 1 and 2, you can take as long as you need (to a certain extent, your teacher may have something else to do).

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